Chuckles Weekend Roundup

 
Welcome to my new feature Chuckles Weekend Roundup where I will be looking at what books I've received, anything interesting I've done or bought or watched and other random stuff. I'll be taking a look back at what happened in my blogging world too, sort of like The Sunday Post that some of you do! 

Please note that I'll be visiting your STS/SP as normal, but I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow DISQUS to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I am the only one who does that on my blog! Sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me because I deleted my account with them but I will persevere as it only happens the odd time!

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Another week goes by and things are going along the same. Despite the continued caffeine withdrawal symptoms (one month and counting) I'm still getting along great in my reading which is keeping my mood up. The Monster Month of March has brought me a mixed quality of books but you expect that and I'm getting through them nicely. Aiming to get that tbr under 800 books before the end of the month! Yeah I know 800 books I own and have yet to read doesn't sound like a reason to celebrate but it was way over 900 at the end of last year so I'm pretty happy!

Book buying this week has been fun! I felt sorry for myself at the start of the week and treated myself to the latest books in the Dirk Patton Voodoo Plague,  Franklin Horton Borrowed World and Darrell Maloney Final Dawn series, a new Darrell Maloney Yellowstone disaster series *screams*, the full omnibus paperback of The Prepper's Crucible AT LAST, and a new apocalypse series to try by Grace Hamilton. Excited! I picked up a few downloads and might save some of them for next week. I also bought some dvds-Scandal S4, Supernatural S10 & 11 and Madam Secretary S1. I do intend to catch up with these and other series eventually! But books come first!

DOWNLOADS:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4961048-wishful-drinking 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6948511-shockaholic 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26025989-the-princess-diarist 

PAPERBACKS:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33976085-scourge 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33948625-no-time-for-mourning 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34339985-the-yellowstone-event 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34087622-frozen 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30184446-prepper-s-crucible-omnibus-complete-parts-1-6 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34530463-dark-retreat 

FOR REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30363347-dust-to-dust 

FOLLOW ME:

https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chuckles-book-cave-9910183 

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot 

https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 

https://uk.pinterest.com/chucklesthescot/

 

Book Promotion: The Mayflower Project by Rashad Freeman (Deconstruction #2)

Four different stories, one terrible event...this is Deconstruction.

Max lives two lives. In one he’s an unassuming climatologist for NOAA. In the other he runs a secret government project that only a handful of people know exist. He’s been burning the candle on both ends for years, but now his paper life is about to come crumbling down with the rest of the world.

After a rough week of work, Max and his girlfriend, Cindy, decide to burn off some steam and head out for a night in the city with two friends. Their little party turns into a cyclone of chaos when Max’s worst nightmares become reality.

As the group struggles to make it out of the crumbling city, Max reveals a secret that threatens to tear them apart. Mother nature is doing her best to kill them, but it’s the shadows and webs of lies that might spell their doom.

Take a step closer to the end of the world and learn the secrets that lie within THE MAYFLOWER PROJECT 

About the author:

http://www.rashadfreeman.com/

https://twitter.com/RashadFreeman 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5436451.Rashad_Freeman 

Book Review: Dust to Dust by Rashad Freeman

Fourteen different people. Six different families. Four different stories. One terrible event. This is Deconstruction. When there is no one to call, when there's nowhere to run for help, who do you turn to? When the very fabric of our society is torn apart, how would you survive?

This installment follows Randall and his family through their harrowing struggle for survival. After a series of unexplainable and disastrous acts of nature, they find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. With food and water dwindling and young children to care for, they are faced with a decision that could mean life or death. Do they venture into the unknown or wait for help that may never come?

My Review: 
*I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

Randall and his family are at home together when the wild weather begins and try to ride it out. But when the military and other gangs of armed men start coming to the neighbourhood it is time to run-but where is it going to be safe to run to?

Lets start with the good stuff. We meet Randall and his family briefly then get right into the disaster starting. I like to see the start of the events instead of going to it months or years later. The family are concerned by the rain and lightning and soon discover that electrical equipment and cars have ceased to work. I liked the family dynamic and the fact that even the younger kids were well behaved enough to follow instructions in keeping quiet when needed. Alistair was a good character-a sensible boy who pays attention to the world around him and is an asset in the crisis instead of a liabilty. I liked Randall's whole family and Greg. I found the characters to be normal and realistic, acting mostly the way people would with a lack of information.

The first part of the book was concerned with what was happening with the power and the ill fated trip to the grocery store, all of which was nicely written. We then had a bit of confusion for the characters when the military moved in as it wasn't clear who they were. Greg kept calling them a militia and Randall wouldn't trust them so that gives the impression they were might not be legitimate, especially when people from the neighbourhood were vanishing at random. Later we hear that troops had been trying to evacuate the coast because of weather issues coming-so I guess those guys were real military then. Then the really bad guys with guns arrive to raid the area and the family flee to the woods, trying to avoid a rape gang and linking up with Koran. Randall and Greg witness a gang rape and have to face he decision of helping her or running to keep the family safe. I liked this whole part of the book and there was enough happening to keep the plot going. However it was around this point when I got fed up with Randall!

Steve and the other guys at work talk to Randall about the weather and tease him about his bug out bag and the end of the world arriving. Randall admits to being part prepper. What I don't get is that if Randall was scared by something on TV and started a bug out bag, why is he the only person on the street who scoffs at the idea of an EMP causing the power to go out? Surely he would be accepting this BEFORE other random neighbours? And why does he have so few supplies that he has to go out for food so quickly? That seems a little confused. He doesn't seem to have any supplies that can be eaten without cooking it or an alternative cooking source. And if he is thinking about leaving, why is everything not packed ready to go just in case and WHY has he not checked his gun? I wouldn't call this guy much of a prepper at all. But that is the way he is and it was kind of amusing. It didn't make me dislike him.

I liked Randall at the start because he was ordinary-out of shape, no gun knowledge, making some mistakes on prepping, not a great swimmer or sailor, just a family man who wanted to protect them even when it led to bad choices. But by the second half of the book Randall himself is the main problem because he thinks he knows better than all others and if you disagree with him he thinks you are just an idiot. A FEMA worker says it is an EMP but of course Randall knows better than him and thinks he's talking rubbish. As we get further into the book the navy man swims better than Randall so Randall sulks about it. Koran can sail the boat and knows weather, being in the navy, but Randall thinks this storm is bad and Koran must be talking rubbish about being in better conditions than the other side of the island. He is planning to dump Koran's family as soon as he works out how to sail the boat despite Koran saving him from the five men who planned to torture and kill him and his kids and rape his wife. Without Koran he wouldn't even BE on the boat and his family would be dead. He sulks because Koran thinks the trip to the base is a waste of time-it was and it put the women and Alistair in grave danger being left alone! "I guess he forgot this was my show and he didn't have to be here." He really is a whiny, immature and ungrateful man at times!

The other issue for me is that there is way too much going on. I would have prefferred in depth coverage of one natural disaster instead of three at the same time. EMPS, random earthquakes, superstorms, the kidnapping of the President's daughter, military men hunting down Koran, were all a bit much in 177 pages and made for too many sub plots. To be honest the sudden addition of the kidnapping did not fit in the overall plot, wasn't given any depth and explanation, and there just seemed no point to it at all. I just don't get why it was there. It seemed to be to justify Randall's decision that Koran wasn't to be trusted. Maybe it becomes clear in later books.

There were also too many unanswered questions by the end of the book which is so abrupt that it's not really an ending at all. Why did the military try to force random people out of their homes like that instead of ordering a sensible evacuation and telling people about the coming storm surge? If they were only taking people with certain skills why not tell everyone else and give them a chance to save themselves? Why did they leave some behind? Why did Randall, who didn't trust these men, then decide to take the family to the military base for answers? How did the raiders from Randall's group know anything about him or who he had with him when they fled? They were there for supplies so why follow one man for his stuff instead of staying to raid the street? When they caught Randall they seemed to know all about his wife and kids but none of the family went outside when these guys arrived-they were indoors and the gang only saw Greg! Why did Koran kidnap Ashley? How did he do it? Why did nobody recognise Ashley? How did the soldiers know Koran was coming there? What happened to Alistair? What is Mayflower? Gah! To be fair, answers on some of it like Mayflower will come in other books though I'm not sure which other questions get answered. Maybe I'm just over curious and need to chill a bit...

None of this was answered by the end of the book and with book 2, 3 and 4 being different characters it looks like only the Mayflower question might be answered and that just isn't good enough for me as a reader. I want to see a proper ending with questions answered before we run off to totally new characters in the next book. But that's just me!

It might sound like a lot of negatives but there are plenty positives to take from this book as well. The writer can obviously write well and there is no complicated language or complex descriptions, just basic solid storytelling. There is no waffle, he just gets straight to the point and starts the disaster plot which is a good thing as I hate longwinded and slow starts. It is a decent book to read in spite of a few issues I had with plot and character, and at no point was I going to DNF as I did want to see what happened. His characters other than the MC were good. There was plenty of action in the book and there were only a few minor spelling and punctuation issues. There was a good basis to a story but for me it just got too involved in side plots that detracted from the main story. People with more patience over Randall's character will probably enjoy the book.

I wouldn't be reading on with the series personally but others might well enjoy it. 

Read March 2017.

Chuckles Mini Reviews Catch Up

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with these reviews from last year.

Sam Sisavath-The Purge of Babylon
Will and Danny are SWAT team members who spend all their time telling crude jokes and making noise before entering the target room. Inside they watch all but one team member getting ripped apart by vampire ghouls and as they carry an injured teammate down the stairs while being chased, they are still joking and laughing. WTF is that all about? Total disrespect to their fallen colleagues! They can't work out why crosses are effective weapons against the momsters either. Doh! Then we have dumb Kate who runs to aid a dying colleague as she leaves her office. He tells her countless times to hide back in the office but instead she just hangs about, getting covered in his blood, then drives endlessly around the levels of the garage, attracting more creatures to her car engine and hoping, in her own words that if she does it often enough the cars blocking the exit might vanish. Seriously the characters in this book all need to be eaten, it was dreadful!  
Read January 2017.

Albert Yates-The Dead Rising
The world has become a different place since Henry woke up this morning and decided to go for a run on his treadmill. His neighbour seems to be acting strange, no one is working at the radio station, and the 911 operator rushed him off the phone when he called. What happened to his town while he was sleeping and will Henry be able to survive the dangers that lie outside of his house?

Henry is so annoying. He starts by moaning about his neighbour Jacob who wandered into his living room one day for a chat while Henry was in the shower. Then locks your doors so he can't invite himself in! It's not rocket science!!! Despite hating his job at the school, he is still brooding over the kids getting him sacked. And then the zombies come. To say that Henry is dumb is putting it mildly. The police are trying to tell him about staying indoors and giving him safety instructions, all of which he is ignoring, along with the somewhat obvious signs that there are zombies next door! He just kept doing really dumb stuff and getting on my nerves.

There is nothing much to like or root for in Henry. There is so much tell and the show that we do get is dull, lacking in tension and uninteresting. I didn't find anything much to make me want to finish this one.
Read January 2017.

AR Shaw-The China Pandemic
Graham is the only one in his family who is immune and after burying his family he is left to look after Bang, the child of a dead neighbour, trying to stay alive and get out of the city to a safer place.

I simply cannot deal with whiny kids in the apocalypse. I get he lost his mother but he is disobeying her by trying to run away, attracting feral dogs, and generally being a bloody pain. We join after the apocalypse so we don't get the terror and drama of the outbreak, which I love, instead we join a bleak landscape with virtually no sign of survivors. I didn't much want to follow Graham and his whining companion on a road trip. I just found the whole thing grim, dull and boring and DNFed it.
Read January 2017.

Morgan Nyberg-The Fixer
The Fixer, a novella, chronicles the year leading up to the global collapse upon which The Raincoast Saga is based. A man who works for a powerful investment firm travels the world attempting to fix financial problems. In the process he is caught up in a relentless downward spiral toward the death of civilization. 

I honestly wish I'd ignored the novella and went straight to book one because I found this gradual deterioration in the world order mind numbingly boring and dull. Smith is a rude and obnoxious man to everyone he meets and is throwing his weight around everywhere he goes. I really don't like the guy. He keeps trying to fix the impossible and risking his life on planes that run on tainted fuel and nearly crash, instead of telling his psycho employer to take a hike which would be deserved. Definitely not for me this one.
Read January 2017.

Pick N Mix Book Tag

This tag was created by Sarah at http://www.thebooklife.co.uk/  and I saw the Tag on Megan's blog at http://readingawaythedays.blogspot.co.uk  It was a bit different so I thought I'd have a go! Thanks ladies!

Questions:

1. Fizzy Blue Bottles. They look strange, and they taste strange, but you like them. Name a book or series with a really strange plot that you couldn't help but love.

I don't do strange plots. If books go weird on me, I get bored and frustrated and DNF! I have a lot of strange books that I hated but none that I loved.

2. The Metre. It goes on forever. Name the longest book series you have read.

Sookie Stackhouse was 13 books. I have a few series of about 15/16 books that I've still to get to, like Morganville Vampires, Kitty Norville, Elemental Assassin, Voodoo Plague and so on. Hope to get some read this year!

3. Chocolate Raisins. No amount of chocolate can hide what's inside. Name a book with a disappointing cover but an interesting story.

The cover for Judith Post's Wolf's Bane was bland but I loved these UF books. Same with the covers on a lot of Indie books by people like Darrell Maloney, Robert Boren but I love their writing.

4. Chocolate Mice. They look sweet, but they're secretly vermin. Name a book that surprised you with it's villain. (Be careful not to give spoilers!) 

The twists on the bad guys in the Arisen series by Michael Stephen Fuchs gets pretty surprising as the series goes on. A lot more than zombies and raiders happening! LOVED this series!

5. Hard Gums. You take a bite, but almost break your teeth. Which book or series was really difficult to get into?

Anything too difficult to get into, I DNF straight away. I don't have time to waste on difficult books when other books await. I never get past book one in that kind of series...I don't waste time on stuff I don't enjoy.

6. Cola Bottles. Some are sweet, some are sour. Name two similar books, one that you loved and one that you didn't like. 

Dinosaur islands can be hit and miss-good ones like Jurassic Island by Viktor Zarkov, poor ones like Jurassic Dead. Same with Bigfoot books-good ones like Hunter Shea's Swamp Monster Massacre, poor ones like Boggy Creek by Eric S Brown.

7. Fried Eggs. Some people love them, some people hate them. Others feel quite indifferent to them. Pick a book that matches how you feel about fried eggs. 

Not a fan of them personally-bland! I've read a LOT of bland books in lots of genres so it's hard to single out anything.

8. Smarties. No matter what you do, they're everywhere. Name a trend or trope you are tired of reading.

Instaluv and love triangles. Hate them! I will not read any book if that is mentioned in the blurb no matter how good the plot sounds. Dealbreakers!

9. Gummy Bears. Name your favourite fictional creature or animal.

Oberon from Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series has to be right up there.  A dog you can talk to in your minds who is funny, intelligent, loves sausages, poodles, films and banter? Oh yes!

10. Pick n Mix! So many sweets, so much variety. Name one/some of your favourite diverse books! 

I don't read diverse books. I believe they should be there for people but I don't seek them out. If they crop up in genres I'm reading, great I'll read them, but don't go looking for them specifically. Years ago I read a lot of Asian fiction like The Kite Runner but don't read them now. I mostly read monsters, zombies and apocalypses.

Want to take part? I tag you! Remember to tell me in the comments page if you have done the tag so I can come and see your answers!